Maoists blast school building

Steeping up attacks on government buildings, Maoist guerrillas blew up a primary school building in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, police said on Saturday.

Steeping up attacks on government buildings, Maoist guerrillas blew up a primary school building in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, police said on Saturday.

Some 80-100 Maoists set explosives inside a primary school building in Phulpar village Friday night and destroyed a major portion, officials at the police headquarters in Raipur told IANS.

The school is around 400 km from state capital Raipur.

Policemen from nearby Kuakonda police station and several Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men reached the site to launch a search operation in nearby thickly forested areas to apprehend the attackers.

Education department officials said that Maoists over the past two years had torched 80 school buildings in Dantewada and Bijapur districts.

Police say they have recovered leaflets from Maoist dominated areas in recent months in which rebels said they are targeting school and hospital buildings in Bastar region as these provide shelter to security personnel for anti-Maoist operations.